Sheaded Skin
by Alicorn
Summary: When you have more than one skin to grow, nothing comes easily. Un-Submitted August PPG-Hub one-shot. Set in my AU post Gloves/pre-canon.


_**Sheaded Skin**_

* * *

The sun baked earth had a restfulness about it, the sort that hinted that leaves would soon be turning golden. Shadows of the small park drew shorter, casting the dim colors of the blue chipped and faded playground animal rides worn by hundreds of tiny hands.

She stared down at her brand new red leather boots under the rusted swing she sat in and sighed. Their shining luxury brought no comfort today.

It had all been new once. So new.

* * *

An all encompassing shadow against the golden glow of her ancient looking blown glass Cthulhu nightlight.

"**Do you think we should wake her?**" The voice that even at a whisper sounded like breath of a broken flute played through a sewer grate.

_Dad_.

"No, it's her last day, she can decide when it starts. She looks..so peaceful." A small shadow, a firm whisper, broken by the sight hint of rare emotion.

_Mom_.

She huffed, burying her face into a pillow and forcing her eyes shut harder against the soft light and fading footsteps.

_I hate you._

* * *

"H-Hey, wait up! Imaaa!"

The howl at her heels had grown into a pitiful whimper now, the sound of a long pause as her pursuer caught sight of something flung to the grass.

The glint of spring sun caught the sloppy stitching of a hem, hastily crisscrossed in white and black thread against the light gray of her skirt, her long sleeves offering a soft place to wipe the bitter taste of a running nose.

Baglady Goodlady, the girl who was even too small for Monster Island Primary School's extra extra small uniform.

_But what did it matter now?_

"I-can't-run-so-fast-Ima-you-dropped-these." The little boy panted, offering up to curled lengths of cardboard in his green hand.

"What good are those? They, they didn't work! I thought if I had finally grown horns like yours they-They might let me stay." She sighed climbing up on the taller of two uneven pull-up bars and gripping it with her knees.

"Whew my-my asthma." The boy gulped in air, looking up at her on her perch with a small smile as he rubbed the tiny nubs of brown horns in his mop of white hair.

"Well _I_ thought they were groovy. Maybe they will still let you stay if-are you crying?"

Ima sniffed. Her hair, once laying limp against her neck now floating up like a black cloud to hide the view of her eyes.

"No...It's just not fair! I won't get to see anything anymore, not any of our teachers, or the soda fountain, or even swim in Monster Bay. All, all because I don't look monster enough!"

Avery's growl joined in the low rattling sound that Ima's braids of black hair had taken on, swaying around her bowed head like ill at ease cat's tails.

"That stupid law! What does it matter how monster you look when you turn ten?" He kicked the dirt, slowly spinning on the other foot in a dusty boot to punch a nearby tree. ..And winced, pulling back and rubbing his knuckles. ".._I think you look nice._"

"They gave me a _wig_ Avery! A silly, 50's looking, _white_ one!"

The girl pulled out what looked like a fizzed mess of white hair on a old fashion bathing cap out of her bookbag, giving it a shake.

"They say I have to wear it forever in the human school. 'Townsville", what a silly name only because, I can't help it if-what?"

Her pale cheeks blushed bright pink under her red freckles. The boy's own were a much darker green under his long white bangs.

"I mean..I think you look nice. Because you're you. You look like you, Ima. Please, don't stop being you, okay?"

It happened so fast she could only remember it as a spell cast by the wind of that day.

As she hopped down, her lips found his ...a handful of her hair snakes heads nuzzling his green cheeks, the others brushing away fresh tears...

* * *

"You were my best friend in the whole world, and my first kiss."

Sedusa laughed, ending with the edge of a giggle that sounded dusty even to her own ears.

"_This old park.._."

The displaced air of nearby teleportation made her hair sway away from a dark burst of red and black fire, ebbing from a cape as its owner sat down on a neighboring swing.

"I've never forgotten. I swore no one would ever be forced to endure that _injustice_ anymore, Ima, that _bigotry_. I dedicated my life to it in so many ways. Now it seems the past has come back to bite us."

Sedusa smiled, rubbing the gold edging of his gray uniformed shoulder.

"You, a soldier, Avery? A Major to be more fancy about it, nearly a Lieutenant Colonel ." She found herself unable to stop as one word followed another, as awkward as all those years ago.

"I still can't believe it, really. The same Avery Green who got tossed in the trash by- Well, thank you for helping, with Him. Although I am perfectly capable of saving myself."

Mr. Green's red eyes brightened, a hearty, booming eerie sounding laugh escaping from his mouth before he could hide it with a hand. "I know that, I was only worried. ..And yes, although I wish in had not come to this...Look at you, 'Baglady Goodlady' with your shining braces and second hand skirts. Sedusa..."

She twisting her hands together, examining her elaborately detailed nails under the sudden weight of his attention.

"It wasn't my first choice for a name. The human world, it is quick about it sometimes."

"I would be happy for a little of your problem, the students call me Mr. Green so often over the years I've nearly forgotten I have a first name."

He chuckled, looking down at his own hands, their fingers looking suddenly longer and clawed in a trick of the dipping sun.

"So, have you decided? Would you like to join me?"

"What sort of old friend would I be if I didn't say yes?"

Sedusa smiled as she applied her red lipstick slowly and carefully, leaning over to whisper in his pointed ear.

"_Of course I'll help you kill the Powerpuff Girls."_


End file.
